


It's You

by veryterriblewritings



Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Sports, Athletes, F/M, Students, Volleyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29646012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veryterriblewritings/pseuds/veryterriblewritings
Summary: Choi Sungyoon is the golden child of Woollim High. Playing for three different sports teams all year round, his grades are doomed to begin with.Enter Ryu Aejeong.
Relationships: Choi Sungyoon | Y/Original Character(s), Choi Sungyoon | Y/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. There's F4 in our school?

**Author's Note:**

> The characters are tagged according to appearances. As more chapters added, the characters list will be updated. Other than that, the additional tags will also expand as the story progresses. Also, the title is very premature at this moment. I'm really shit at naming stuff. Literally I just take a Golcha's song title that fits the mood right now. So, if you have a better title, leave it on the comment section.

Choi Sungyoon is nervous. The coach calls him into his office. The coach never calls him into his office. Coach Lee always does all his compliments out in the field to boost the team’s morale or motivation or whatever. Which means he is about to be at the receiving end of something that is not a compliment.

His fingers fidget as he places both his hands on his back. And finally, Coach Lee comes in and sits down on his swivel chair. He sighs.

_ This can’t be good _ , Sungyoon thinks as he tries to think of something that he does wrong during practice. Coach Lee doesn’t really care about what his players do outside of practices.

“Son, I have to pull you from the volleyball team,” he finally says.

Before Sungyoon even has to ask for a reason, he continues, “your homeroom teacher is threatening to have you banned from playing sports at all this year. Apparently, your grades are just shit.”

Sungyoon tries to avoid the judgemental look from Coach Lee.

“I’m sorry, Coach,” he apologizes as he looks down. He never disappoints Coach Lee in the two years that he had been training with him.

“You don’t have to be sorry to me, son. You still have time to improve,” Coach Lee says. He isn’t disappointed in Sungyoon as much as he is annoyed at the homeroom teacher for making a big deal out of grades. The boy clearly has a knack for sports and his athletic skills are off the charts. He doesn’t really need to excel tremendously in academics as well. No one needs to be that perfect anyway.

Sungyoon says nothing as he is still bummed out about not being able to play volleyball this season. Like what is he supposed to do in his 6-hour training time now?  _ Oh yeah, studying probably, ugh. _

“But you just said about the volleyball team only, right?” he asks. “Does that mean that I will be able to return next season?”

“Yeah, I was able to negotiate with your homeroom teacher. If your grades are up to her standard in the fall mock SAT, then you’re definitely on for basketball next season,” he reassures. Sungyoon is his favourite athlete after all.

“You better return next season, son. I don’t know if we can have a good basket season without you.”

  
  


It’s like watching F4 strolling the school or something. Four guys strut through the hallway, making other people who are walking as well to have to swerve and make way, just because all of them just have to walk side by side to flaunt their handsomeness, well-proportioned bodies and model-like runway catwalk, or something.

“It’s the exchange students from SM.”

Ryu Aejeong turns to her side to see who was speaking. But she can’t be sure who said those information exactly. There are lines of girls and boys, halting from doing their routines, in front of their respective lockers, who are currently gawking at these boys who walk through the hallway, passing lines of lockers, acting like they are actually the reincarnation of F4.

Aejeong shrugs.  _ None of my business, _ she thinks.

  
  


As fate would have it, it turns out to be her business after all, because all four of them are currently lining up in front of the blackboard at the very front of her classroom.

“Girls and boys, these are your new classmates, transferred from our sister school, SM High,” the homeroom teacher, Miss Kwon informs, even she looks like she’s smitten by these boys.

The tall one waves and smiles. He's so obviously the tallest among the four. The others don't have much expressions on their faces. Although the shortest one looks like he has a resting friendly face.

“Introduce yourselves now, boys,” she continues, encouraging them with a huge smile.

Aejeong doesn’t recall the last time Miss Kwon smiled with this level of enthusiasm. Oh well.

“Hi everyone, I’m Johnny Suh.” That’s the tallest one, seems like the friendliest one as well, according to how his voice sounds like. Aejeong has a feeling that he'd be talkative.

“Nakamoto Yuta.” The guy looks like he belongs in a shoujo manga. His hair is longer than the rest of the boys and he looks like one of those guys who comb their hair with only their fingers and will do so 23 times throughout the day.

“My name is Lee Taeyong.” This may be just a self-introduction but this guy says it with the confidence of a man who is so accustomed to winning. Definitely an athlete, this one. 

Thank god none of them has different or special coloured hair. Because if this Taeyong person’s hair were blond or red, then we’re definitely in the beginning of a cliche shoujo anime or something.

And then the shortest guy of the bunch goes, “I’m Moon Taeil.” The guy seems like he’d be sweet. Or to be completely honest, he looks like he’d be easy-going (or a pushover, because let’s be real, this is high school). 

But the four of them actually look like they’re close to each other so maybe nobody would dare to take advantage of the easy-going vibe this short guy has.

“Excellent!” says Miss Kwon. She seems way too excited to be having them in her class.

As Miss Kwon dismisses the new boys and gets them to fill in the empty seats in the class, Choi Sungyoon sneaks into the class from the back door.

“Student Choi Sungyoon, I can see you back there,” Miss Kwon says matter-of-factly. 

Like this isn’t the first time Sungyoon comes through the back door ten minutes into the homeroom session. He’s done this before and probably will continue to do it again unapologetically. Oh wait, but he doesn’t have to do morning laps anymore now that he is kicked out of the volleyball team. Maybe he will and can be punctual from now on.

Nonetheless, Sungyoon just grins and takes his seat next to Daeyeol. He raises his hand above his head, gesturing, sorry.

“There’s only 12 of you in this class this year since the school just got a new building over the summer, so just come through the front door when you’re late. It doesn’t make much difference since I’ll catch you anyway. Why bother with the sneaking in?” Miss Kwon snarkily says. Her voice is laced with sarcasm and Aejeong is definitely amused as she turns her head to look at the embarrassed Sungyoon.

“Anyway, that’s all for homeroom today. Good luck for your first day of your senior year. Be on your best behaviour, my students,” Miss Kwon reminds as she gathers her books and papers before exiting the class.

And so the first day as seniors begins for Class 3-1 students.

As the students start to chat with each other, most likely about the new students and the new students also seem to talk to one another possibly about their new school, Miss Kwon’s head peaks into the front door again, calling for Choi Sungyoon and the chats halted, the classroom falls into silence.

With all his classmates looking at him, Miss Kwon says, “you need to see me during recess today.”

When she leaves for the second time, the chats begin to pick up their pace again.

“Dude, what’d you do?” Daeyeol asks when Sungyoon drops his head on his desk.


	2. Oh captain! My captain!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just the golden children chit-chatting in the cafeteria

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short, filler chapter to boost my own morale

“So, what did she say?”

Even with all the chatting noises, the chewing sounds and the bustling of students’ footsteps in the cafeteria, he hears Daeyeol loud and clear as he sets his food tray and sits down. He sighs, losing his appetite already.

“What did who say?” Joochan asks before he blows into the soup on his spoon.

“Miss Kwon asked to see him personally,” Daeyeol answers. “In front of the whole class,” he continues to gossip. “There are new students from SM High in our class. So, on the first day of class with the brand new students, Sungyoon is already the dumbass who has problems with authorities,” and he laughs while Sungyoon openly glares at him.

“Those F4 guys are in your class?” Seungmin asks. “Wow.” He looks impressed for some reason.

“What’s F4?” Donghyun asks. “And that’s what you caught from all the shit Daeyeol was spewing?”

“It’s a manga thing, I think. Juri calls them F4,” Seungmin replies. Sungyoon looks around the table of nine as of now, and they all look too attentive in this F4 manga discussion.

“Wait, is that why you’re late for lunch?” Jangjun asks as he takes the seat next to Sungyoon. He doesn’t have a food tray in front of him. Might be because he’s finished with his food. Sungyoon was late to the cafeteria after all. He takes a quick glance to everyone's food trays and they’re almost empty.

Sungyoon picks up a huge chunk of rice with his chopsticks and shoves the food into his mouth in resentment.

“She wants to talk about my grades,” he says, with his teeth still biting into the food. “She wants to have me scheduled studying time after school and she assigns me a tutor,” he tells them.

“Yikes,” all nine of them almost comically blurt out in unison. At least he knows that all of his nine friends and cares about his sufferings.  _ Hold on a second. Nine?  _ he thinks and he looks all across the table. Yeah, there’s ten, him included.

“Then what about your training?” Jibeom asks. 

“Yeah, I thought the training sessions are before and after school?”  _ A-ha, this is the unfamiliar face. _

“Yeah, Coach Lee would have us running laps in the morning and the actual training for the sport is in the evening,” Sungyoon answers. “Who are you, anyway?”

“Oh yeah, you weren’t here earlier,” Jibeom recalls. “I introduced him to the group just before you arrived. This is Bomin, my junior from middle school,” Jibeom introduces as Bomin makes a salutation gesture with his hand towards Sungyoon.

“So, didn’t you tell her that you have training after school?” Youngtaek asks.

“Yeah, no, she actually got Coach Lee to pull me from doing any sports this season.”

“What?!” Once again, comically unison. Maybe this group needs to spend more time with people outside of the group. This reaction synchronisation is borderline creepy.

“I was going to encourage Bomin to go to the volleyball tryout,” Jibeom disappointedly remarks. “Now, he won’t have a familiar face on the team,” he continues as he pats Bomin’s head.

“Chill out, I’m not a baby,” Bomin retorts.

“You kinda are,” Jibeom says as a matter of fact.

“You do look like a baby,” Youngtaek comments. He points at Jibeom and continues, “what do you mean no familiar face? I am on the team,” Youngtaek sulks.

“But you’re not captain. You have to audition at the tryout like commoners do.” Despite Youngtaek’s apparent dissatisfaction, Jibeom continues, “Sungyoon would be on the judge panel with Coach Lee.”

“I got kicked out, so not anymore,” Sungyoon corrects them.

“I heard that those SM transfer kids are volleyball players,” Jaehyun informs them, he couldn’t sound more gossipy with the alleged rumour. “Maybe one of them would be the new captain.”

“You can’t just pull up into a new school and be captain. You have to climb up to the position like Sungyoon and Daeyeol did,” Youngtaek refutes..

“Yeah, actually I did hear that those kids are athletic as hell,” Jangjun adds. “But I thought they’d be basketball players, y’know?”

“Why?” Jaehyun challenges. “Because they’re tall? Like literally just one of them who are that tall,” he comments, emphasising on the word ‘that’ before continuing with “you’re stereotyping.”

If the bell does not ring at that time, they’d probably continue to argue with back-and-forth banters. And Sungyoon is sort of already lethargic from the thoughts of him having to bury his face, nose-deep, into books for 6 hours a day instead of training for volleyball.

What if he loses his fit body? What if he forgets how to play sports? What if he dies from nose-bleeding due to non stop studying?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for leaving that kudos (or a kudo? what is the singular form of kudos?)  
> Anyway, thanks for reading! I'd appreciate some feedbacks especially regarding the title, I'm really not sitting well on the current title.


	3. She's not a Velvet?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and so we dive into ryu aejeong's character

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes, lovelyz are also in on this. i mean, c'mon. you basically had me at "enter ryu aejeong".  
> also red velvet is also here, although i am not single-naming anyone. i put them together as a sort of elite group which they actually are <3

“Hey, Aejeong,” Mijoo calls as she sees Aejeong walking through the front door of their class.

“Yeah,” she answers as she stands besides Mijoo’s desk. She has a clipboard with a list of names on it.

“Are you going to the tennis tryout after school today?” Mijoo asks.

“Yeah, no. Miss Kwon says she has something else for me to do for my extracurricular this term,” Aejeong informs her as she slips into her own seat.

Mijoo turns in her seat to face Aejeong. “Don’t tell me you’re doing volleyball, because the last time you played you got a pretty rough concussion.”

“Oh yeah, you see, I remember that despite the concussion,” Aejeong says, with evident horror in her expression.

“As expected from the brainiac,” Mijoo comments teasingly.

Aejeong sighs disappointedly. “Yeah well, if I was a true brainiac, I would’ve gotten into SM.”

“Hey, come on now, you’re just as smart as the kids who got transferred there. You’re just a little lacking in the sports department,” Mijoo consoles her, gently rubbing her arm.

“I’m just disappointed, you know,” Aejeong says. “My whole study group got transferred to SM and they get to study in this massive library,” she complains as she pouts in jealousy.

Mijoo just wears a thin smile on her face. What else can she say to a girl who got left behind by most of her friends.

Aejeong continues to complain. “Our library doesn’t even deserve to be called a library. A resource room might be a more apt name.” She lays her head over her arms on the desk, sulking still.

“So, what are you doing for extracurricular this term?” Mijoo asks, trying to change the topic.

“Miss Kwon says she has a tutoring job for me,” Aejeong tells Mijoo. “She says that’ll cover my extracurricular and I can put that in my resume for college.” She doesn’t seem as bummed out anymore.

Mijoo nods in understanding. “That’s clever actually. No offense, but you’re suck at every sport. I don’t think you can put those on your college application.”

“No, I know,” Aejeong laughs. “None taken. Not even a little bit.”

Maybe Mijoo doesn’t know it, but talking to her is always something that can lift her spirits. That’s a part of Lee Mijoo’s charms.

“And don’t worry, I don’t plan to put ‘falling off cheerleading pyramids’ and ‘getting balls hit me in the face’ on my resume and application,” Aejeong says as she laughs it off. “I’m just glad I got this tutoring gig.”

Mijoo nods. “Who are you tutoring by the way?”

  
  


It’s after school already and some of the guys are sitting on the bleachers watching the volleyball team tryout. One of the F4 dudes is on the field auditioning in front of Coach Lee while the others watch from the sidelines. Sungyoon doesn’t remember nor does he care which one of the F4 are currently doing the tryout tasks. Coach Lee is holding a clipboard, probably with application and judge forms whilst Sungyoon reads over his new schedule for this term. 

He shouldn’t have to hold a study schedule. He should’ve been out there in the field, judging his future teammates, having a clipboard of his own. He sighs and leans back.

“Is Ryu Aejeong normal or will she beat me into shape in preparation for the mock SAT?” Sungyoon asks, still looking at the paper on his hands.

“Ryu Sujeong, you mean? From our class?” Donghyun assumes.

“No, dumbass. Ryu Aejeong, Sujeong’s elder sister.” Daeyeol deadpans.

“Yeah, why would a junior tutor a senior?” Jaehyun adds.

“First of all, I didn’t know Sujeong has a sister that goes here.” Donghyun reasons. “Second, I just thought Sungyoon would need to start from basics since he barely did any studying in both freshman and junior years.”

Okay, that was a roast to his self-esteem but he can’t even be offended because it’s true. Ever since he tried out for the volleyball team in the first term of freshman year, he had been doing nothing but sports throughout high school. How the hell is he not expelled yet? His grades are horrible and painful to look at.

“How do you not know Sujeong’s sister goes here?” Daeyeol asks, it’s unsure to whom he was directing the question. “We have like 150 students here, and that’s combining all three grades,” he informs, pulling out the school statistics.

“I don’t know.” Donghyun is the one who answers. Feels like he has to clear himself up for some reason. “Maybe because Ryu Sujeong is hella famous and her sister is not so much?” He says in the form of a question actually.

“Okay, chill out.” Sungyoon says, gesturing to the two people on either side of him to calm down. He feels like he’s caught in the middle there. “Can anyone answer my questions though?”

“Aejeong is nice enough for someone who used to hang out with the Velvets.” Daeyeol says, although he is shrugging his shoulders as he continues, “but you do have to keep in mind that the Velvets were kind of mean. The bar of niceness is quite low.”

“How could they not be mean? Like they’re talented, athletic, smart and pretty. You’re allowed to be mean if those are your personality traits,” Jaehyun explains as they all nod in agreement. Evidently none of these guys are doing well when it comes to girls.

Seungmin interrupts as they all seem to want to be talking about the Velvet’s personalities, still. “Hey, I thought all the Velvets got transferred to SM?” he asks.

“No, Aejeong doesn’t qualify since she doesn’t play two sports.” Daeyeol says. Boy, does he have a lot to say about one Ryu Aejeong. But then he is the assistant class monitor. It’s not weird that he knows all that. Right?

Daeyeol continues. “Plus she just hung out with them for like a study group. Like she’s not officially a Velvet.”

“Yeah, that’s true because like the Velvets are all like smart brainiacs and active cheerleaders.” Seungmin says, agreeing with Daeyeol as he continues his report. “Ryu Aejeong fell from the cheer pyramid twice during practice and they just kept her as the manager so she could score some extracurricular points.”

“So, she sucks at sports.” Sungyoon nods. “Noted,” he remarks.

“Why’d you ask about her?” Seungmin asks. Did Sungyoon not already say something about SAT tutoring?

But he answers anyway. “Miss Kwon said that she’s gonna tutor me during study hall. She gave me a timetable and everything.”

“Hey, since she sucks at sports, maybe you can tutor her to be less suck at sports.” Seungmin comes up with a suggestion that sounds totally plausible, especially when he follows up with this, “then this tutoring relationship will be mutual and she could be less mean to you. I mean, she will need to have some extracurricular activity to graduate.”

Sungyoon is definitely thinking about that. He could maybe sneak some physical training time if he suggests that to Ryu Aejeong. Then maybe he won’t go crazy with all the studying that he has to do.

“Hey, Choi Sungyoon!”

Sungyoon falls out from his deep thinking. Coach Lee was yelling at him from the middle of the field.

“What the hell are you doing here?” the coach continues yelling as Sungyoon looks at him all weird. “You’re banned from the field! Go to study hall!”

Sungyoon looks down to the timetable in his hand and takes off, muttering “oh shit.”

“Now Miss Kwon is gonna yell at me,” Coach Lee says as he slams his clipboard on his empty hand before he gets back into the tryout.

“Johnny, you’re in,” he announces. “Next!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! as usual comments and feedback are more than appreciated. at this point, i just want to straight up say that i crave validation :D


	4. Start of something new

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First one on one session!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and reading so far!  
> Do let me know what you think!

When Sungyoon finally arrives at the study hall, he finds it to be empty, consisting only of tables and chairs and shelves with books that are arranged in a way that he thought it would be easy to take a nap in here. But then he remembers that Woollim is unofficially a sports school and this is just the first term of the school year. Literally nobody would be cramming in the study hall this early into the school year.

That means two things to Choi Sungyoon; one, he doesn’t have to rush to come early after school everyday to save a spot because there are and will be plenty, and two, he will probably be the only bloke in this entire school who’s not doing sports after school.

As if she is called upon by some sort of cue from god, Ryu Aejeong walks into his line of vision, emerging from one of the book shelves.

“Sorry, I’m late,” he apologises when he walks closer to the table that seems to be the one they’re going to spend at least four hours from now until the end of a school day.

“No worries, I was actually napping back there,” Aejeong casually informs as she points towards the lane in between two bookshelves she just came from. She pulls a chair and sits down.

He places his backpack on the table and pulls the chair next to Aejeong. Wow, maybe Ryu Aejeong is cooler than what his friends seemed to think of her.

Sungyoon sits down and taps his fingers on the table. He doesn’t actually know how to start this whole tutor/tutee friendship dynamics. Hell, he isn’t even sure that they’re friends right now. Like this is the first year that they are sorted into the same class. He was always in Class 2 and Ryu Aejeong is always in Class 1. Due to the massive number of student exchanges from and to SM High, Choi Sungyoon somehow managed to get into Class 1. 

In other words, Ryu Aejeong has always been a part of elite students. She was literally hanging out with the Velvets. Like the Velvets was aptly named because those girls are beautiful, rich, smart and elegant.

Okay, before he drooled onto the table thinking about how fitting Ryu Aejeong was with the Velvet girls, he better start to take this studying seriously. He is determined to return for the basketball season.

“So, what do we start with?” he asks after he clears his throat.

“Miss Kwon said you’re given a study schedule?” she replies, inquiring without even looking up to look at him. She is just scribbling on her notebook.

Sungyoon nods as he takes out the piece of paper Miss Kwon gave him when he saw her this morning. He puts it on the table and smoothes it out with his hands since the paper crumbles a bit.

Aejeong takes her eyes off her notebook and looks at the paper.

“That’s a full 6 hours,” she says, she sounds a little surprised to him.

“How bad are your grades?” she asks as she looks at him, for the first time, in the eye. And Sungyoon thinks she has a pair of beautiful brown eyes.  _ Wrong time to be assessing people’s eyes, dumbass _ , he thinks as he looks away and stammers.

“Pretty bad,” he answers.

“You’re in my class. You’re in 3-1,” she says. Every word that escapes her lips just raises in tone and her emphasis on ‘3-1’ just makes Choi Sungyoon feel smaller and smaller.

“Let’s start with something easy like language,” she says as she rummages through her file that has more compartments than any file he has ever seen.

“Sure,” he agrees along as he takes out his pencil case from his backpack.

“I consider this like some sort of diagnostic test. We’ll know where to go from here when you’re done with this.” She taps her chin as she flips through the papers. “You speak Korean well, so just answer this.”

He takes the test paper and already his eyebrows are furrowing.

“Don’t think too much or too deep. You answer what you know,” she says without looking at him, as she edits and makes notes on his schedule.

She was right, he shouldn’t think too much. He’s a natural at language. Like he doesn’t talk like a dumbass and it’s not like he doesn’t know how to spell. Pretty solid, in his opinions.

“I’m done,” he announces in a happy voice. He looks over at her and he sees her smile at his antics. Although she doesn’t lift her head to look at him, he reflects her smile. That’s right, Choi Sungyoon could be lovable if he wants to be.

“Alright, I’ll mark it,” she says as she makes a final scribble on her notebook. And then she tears the page out of the bind of the book and slides the page over to him. “Before I do the marking, let’s talk about the schedule.”

“Okay,” he says as he studies the page she just gave him.

“No ‘memorising multiplication and periodic table at 7 freaking a.m.” she starts off. “I know the school gate opens at 7 but I won’t actually be here until 8.”

“Don’t you do morning laps or meetings before class periods?” he asks.

“I’m not in any club and I walk from my house to school anyway. That’s literally exercise already. I’m not doing extra laps.” she says, clicking her teeth as if what he asks was something out of this world.

“So, can I do my laps instead of math before class?” he asks back, seeing a glimpse of hope, as he plans on doing at least a little bit of physical activity.

“Do whatever you want, I’m not the boss of you.” She makes a face. To be fair, he’s asking rather uncalled for questions. “And we’ll be in the study hall, doing actual tutoring, from 2 to 7 with a one-hour break at 4.” He can see what she’s explaining on the new schedule she drafted for him.

“You’re much more fairer than Miss Kwon,” Sungyoon comments. “She wants me to spend every waking hour studying from here on out,” he complains.

“Maybe your grades are that bad,” she remarks, raising an eyebrow at him.

Ryu Aejeong’s remarks from this first tutoring session do seem like she’s judgmental. But Sungyoon figures that she has to judge him and his learning abilities to actually make a difference and improve his grades. But this has been a pleasant experience thus far. For both of them, really. She isn’t being mean or stuck-up or derogatory. And he isn’t at all a cocky jock and a dumbass douche. First impressions are everything but whatever they learnt from other people about each other have been just simply misleading.

He shrugged. “So, what’s next?” he asks.

“Let’s have you do math while I mark your Korean paper.”

He nods as she looks for mathematics test papers from her huge file. He is just studying her demeanour as he waits. She seems to be carrying herself poshly, although he had just learnt that she naps in between bookshelves, a not morning person, apparently and she’s being so kind about tutoring him.

Which warrants him to ask, “why’d you agree to help me?”

“You do sports for extracurricular. I do this for extracurricular,” she answers as she hands him the math papers. “Tutoring you is my ticket out of being in an actual sports team, which is a mandatory thing in this school.” She sighs.  _ Wow she must’ve really hated sports _ , he assumes.

“Cool,” he says as he gets started on the math papers.

“I’m not doing charity nor am I being used inconveniently by our homeroom teacher, if that’s what you really wanted to ask,” Aejeong casually comments as if she could read it from his face.

Sungyoon doesn’t know why he feels glad but he does so he says, “then we don’t owe each other anything.”

“That’s right.”

“Cool.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder if I should change the title to 'Breathe' since y'know, the volleyball thing in the MV  
> Anyways, stream Breathe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AI9c9CsxEI


	5. Tough love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sungyoon is jealous of someone. Aejeong tries to be a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A whole lot is happening in here. NCT (or at least Taeyong) is relevant to storyline again.

Honestly, Sungyoon does not know you can actually get out of doing the morning laps. Like he just now realizes that Coach Lee doesn’t even take attendance of students who are showing up at school at 7 a.m. Ryu Aejeong has really begun to teach him some stuff. It’s really weird hanging out with a non-athletic person in a mostly athletic school. Not that he can be sure that what they did together yesterday could be considered hanging out.

“I thought you’re banned from the field,” Jangjun asks as he matches his running pace with Sungyoon.

“My tutor says I can run in the morning because she’s not an early bird,” Sungyoon answers while slowing down his pace.

“You could replace the word ‘tutor’ with ‘girlfriend’ because you’re basically in a relationship now that she’s the boss of you,” Jangjun comments as he giggles like a lovesick schoolgirl.

Sungyoon stops running. “She’s not the boss of me. She said I can do whatever I want and I want to run in the morning,” he clarifies, sending a glare to Jangjun.

Jangjun stops as well. They have run about eleven or so laps. That should be enough for the morning.

“Hey, did you know that we don’t have to actually be at school at 7?” he asks as the both of them walk to the bleachers where they keep their backpacks and water bottles.

“I mean, legally school starts at 8, but you know what the coaches and teachers at this school are like,” he says. “You have to start being active from the moment you wake up in the morning,” he mocked the principal, probably. He wasn’t sure because a lot of teachers do say that thing about being active. Also he can’t be sure because Jangjun just sounds like he just uses the Spongebob meme in real life.

“By the way, they already picked players for the volleyball team,” Jangjun informs.

Sungyoon stops drinking for a bit before he pushes his water bottle back into his backpack. “That’s neat,” he comments.

“What, you couldn’t sound more jealous?” Jangjun laughs.

“I’m not jealous.” He rolls his eyes at Jangjun as he petulantly flings his backpack over his shoulder.

“Also, I have bad news for you,” Jangjun says while looking serious. He hates it when Jangjun gets all serious.

“What? You have more sports news for this term to rub on my face?” Yeah, he’s definitely not jealous. Not even a little teeny tiny bit.

“Since you’re not on any sports teams this term, you can’t use the locker room,” Jangjun says as he sucks his teeth. “They need the space for the F4 boys.”

“Do we need to keep calling them that?” he asks, rolling his eyes again. Sure, he’s not annoyed. “It makes me feel like an extra character in some anime.”

“What makes you so sure that we’re not just characters in an anime? What if this is a comic book world?” Jangjun says while raising his left eyebrows a few times.

“You don’t have to watch everything Bomin tells you to,” Sungyoon annoyingly remarks as he walks away from Jangjun to go to his classroom.

“Come and take your stuff after homeroom!” Jangjun yells from the door of Class 2-1.

Sungyoon just makes a vague gesture with his hand without even looking back at Jangjun.

  
  


Taking his stuff and just putting them all in a box makes him feel like he was being fired. How is he already having this feeling when he’s literally 17? But then, when he thinks about it, this does feel like he’s being fired from the team. Like he’s not in the team, playing. He’s somewhere else getting burnt or being a burn-out because he is constantly studying.

_ Bitch, chill, you’ve been to the study hall one time _ , he thinks to himself as he drags himself out of being all nostalgic and bummed out as he clears out the locker that he had been using for two years. That’s three whole terms of sports. Maybe he should be sad for a bit.

“Can you move faster? I need that locker,” a voice behind him spoke in monotone. As if he’s boring or something.

Sungyoon moves back and lets this person occupy the front of his locker. He just puts his wrist sweatband with the letter ‘C’ on the box and he’s ready to go.

“I don’t think you should keep the captain sweatband if you’re not captain anymore,” the guy says and turns around to confront Sungyoon.

“Taehyung, is it?”

“Taeyong, Lee Taeyong,” he corrects him. He said his name way too confidently. “The volleyball team captain this year.” He extends his hand to Sungyoon and Sungyoon just looks at it.

“Do you really want a sweatband that someone else already used?” Sungyoon cockily asks. He can’t lose like this. “I don’t think this sweatband would fit you as much as it would me.”

Taeyong smirks and drops his hand back to his side. “It doesn’t matter. I can get Coach Lee to give me a new sweatband. Maybe I can ask for a head sweatband that can fully spell: C, A, P, T, A, I, N.”

Sungyoon clicks his tongue.  _ He really just gave me a spelling lesson to spite me _ , he thinks to himself as they stare at each other.

“Good then, maybe I just hold on to my sweatband because it has always been mine,” he replies. He tosses the wrist band onto the box and lifts it.

“You should see Miss Kwon and tell her about your interest in spelling bees,” he remarks and leaves.

  
  


“You’re very early today.”

Sungyoon lifts his head from the desk when he hears Aejeong’s voice. She’s walking towards him from the front door.

“It bodes well for me that punctuality impresses you,” he remarks.

Aejeong pulls the chair next to him. “Okay, then. Let’s start,” she says as she pulls out that big compartment file of her from her backpack.

“Your file is bigger than the whole filing system in our library,” Sungyoon comments as he takes out his pencil case and chooses a pencil.

“I do believe I have more resources than our library,” she deadpans.

“So, what do we start with today?” he asks, twirling a pencil between his fingers.

“Math,” she answers. “You are absolutely shit at math,” she comments as she pulls some papers from her file.

Sungyoon just pouts and buries his head under his arms. “I know,” he murmured.

Aejeong sighs and shakes her head. “You have the motivation of a chocolate eclair,” she remarks. “You can’t feel discouraged every time I say something about your ability.”

“I know.” His voice is muffled because he still hides his face on the desk.

Aejeong hands him the math papers and pokes his head. “Get up.”

Sungyoon lifts his head and petulantly slides the paper in front of him.

“Math is about doing the practices. The more you do, the more natural you will be with it,” she instructs.

Sungyoon nods and starts reading the questions as Aejeong guides him.

Two hours pass by. Aejeong stretches. “I’m gonna go and take a nap,” she announces as she gets up from the chair.

“Okay,” Sungyoon says and he pushes the paper he was working on away from him, looking disgusted and exhausted.

“Hey, you’re getting there,” she comments. “It has been two days. You can’t be an expert in every subject in two days.”

“I know,” he says. He rests his elbow on the desk, propping up his chin. “I’m bummed out about something else too. I don’t question your teaching method or anything,” he reassures.

Aejeong sighs and sits back down. “Then, what is it?” she asks.

“You really want to know?” Sungyoon asks skeptically, furrowing his eyebrows.

“I mean whatever,” she says nonchalantly. “If telling me about it will make you do better and take this tutoring session seriously and with a good attitude, then fire away, I guess,” she reasons.

Although she says it like she doesn’t care, Ryu Aejeong does continue to surprise Sungyoon. Maybe this is the way girls solve their problems; by talking it out. His friends will probably just ask him to get over it and glue Lee Taeyong to his chair as a revenge prank.

“Well, you know how I’ve been the volleyball captain last year?” he starts as he sits up straight, ready to do this sharing session.

“Sure,” Aejeong nods.

“The new kid from SM is the captain this year and he’s just so fucking cocky about it. He even got my locker in the locker room. While me, I’m banned from using the locker room altogether,” he spills his guts, shares his feelings. He feels different as he talks it out. Maybe Ryu Aejeong will comfort and console his wounded heart and pride.

“That’s it?” she asks, having a blank reaction.

Sungyoon nods. Man, Ryu Aejeong can be unpredictable sometimes.

“You boys are worried about such stupid stuff,” she comments, rolling her eyes. “It’s just a locker. Just take your shit and chuck it in the library locker.”

Sungyoon just stares at her. How did we get here? Isn't she supposed to be kind and gentle as she motivates him to do better?

“Like dude, he’s captain now because you’re banned from the team. Not because he’s better than you,” she says, although to Sungyoon, she sounds like she’s scolding him.

“But that hurts my feelings,” he mumbles as he pouts.

“Ugh.” She looks at the ceiling. “Then do better at studying. Get at least all Cs for your mock SAT and you’ll be back next season,” she advises.

Sungyoon slowly nods in agreement, weirdly getting pumped up.

“Next season, you steal your locker back.” Aejeong motivates him albeit not in the way he expects.

“You’re right,” Sungyoon replies, all fired up.  _ You know what this is? Tough love _ , he thinks

“Now go get me some snacks and don’t disturb my nap,” she orders as she stands up and walks to her favourite napping corner.

Sungyoon stands up and yells, “yes, ma’am,” before Aejeong shushes him up without even looking back.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback and comments (positive, negative, constructive) are more than welcome. I wanna what you guys like and dislike. Thank you for reading!
> 
> Note that I changed the sports from football to volleyball because of Golcha's comeback hehe.


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